


Shutdown

by Missy1978



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cape May NJ, Destination Wedding, Dorothy's ruby slippers, Elder Brother is Uncle Ray, F/M, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, Girl Scouts, Kermit the Frog - Freeform, Lemons, Living Together, Loud Sex, Mamie Eisenhower's dress, Netflix and Chill, Oral Sex, Philadelphia, Smithsonian, Treasury Department, Washington DC, flasbacks (probably every chapter), government shutdown, the drunken bananas are back
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-01-31 13:37:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21447070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy1978/pseuds/Missy1978
Summary: The US Federal Government has failed to pass a budget, and all non-essential government employees are being sent home, including Sandor and Sansa. Actually just another scenario to bring those two together.
Relationships: Robb Stark/Original Female Character(s), Sandor Clegane/Sansa Stark
Comments: 33
Kudos: 99
Collections: Numerous OTPS Infinite Fandoms, Sandor Clegan and Sansa Stark Stories





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wandering_gypsy_feet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wandering_gypsy_feet/gifts).

> For Wandering Gypsy Feet, who was my soul sister during the last shutdown.
> 
> I do not work for Treasury or the Smithsonian, so I don’t know what their exact procedures are for an “orderly government shutdown.” But I do know about shutdowns, and have been through several of them. All the procedures are accurate (at least to me); including (and not limited to) getting callbacks while still being considered “non-essential.”
> 
> This is my first multi-chapter piece, we'll see how this goes.

**Present Day**

Sandor was finishing up his list for the “orderly shutdown” of his office. The United States Federal Government had failed to sign a new budget (again) and therefore he and thousands of other government employees were in the process of being furloughed.

As a manager in the Treasury Department Sandor had issued furlough notices to his entire staff, and instructed them to lock their government issued iPhone and iPad in their desks, put a furlough message on their computer and telephone, then make sure they took anything perishable from their desks and the lunchroom refrigerator with them when they left (Sandor didn’t want a repeat of the science experiments they came back to from the last shutdown).

Sandor was the only one left in the office; he had a few more things to do, including hanging closed notices on the exterior doors, then he was going to meet Sansa, who had her own checklist to get through as a curator at the Smithsonian, they’d go home to their townhouse in Arlington to wait out the shutdown.

Sandor felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, he pulled it out to see a photo of Sansa on the screen. “Hi Little Bird, all done?”

“Almost, I’ve checked all the exhibits for carbon dioxide levels, put furlough messages on my computer and phone, given ALL the security guards my personal number in case one of alarms on the exhibit cases goes off so I can tell them what to do until I can get there. The only thing I have left to do is decide which plants I want to bring home.”

After the last shutdown Sansa had returned to an office full of dead plants, she wasn’t going to let that happen again. But she was going to still have to make some tough decisions, she couldn’t carry them all.

“Do you want me to come over so I can carry some too?”

“No, I’ll just get my favorites, I want to get out of here; it’s eerie when no one is around. How about I meet you at the Metro entrance in 30 minutes?”

“Sounds good Little Bird, see you there.”

Sandor had lived in the DC area for years. He had been recruited right out of college by the Fraud Branch of the Department of Treasury.

A criminal justice major, who looked like he could bench press a pick-up truck was a huge asset when investigating counterfeiters. The scarring on his face and the fact that he could be mean as fuck when he needed to be was just a bonus to intimidate the criminals even more.

Eventually though, Sandor had been promoted out of the field and into a desk job, which was why he was the person issuing the furlough notices instead of just being on the receiving end.

Like Sansa though, Sandor was still considered a 'non-essential government employee' he just had hours of work to do before being furloughed himself.

**The night before spring break**

Sandor had met Sansa, when she and Sandor’s little sister Elle roomed together in college. He’d heard about her for years from Elle, but didn’t meet Sansa until the night before spring break of her senior year.

Sandor had arrived at Elle’s apartment to take her home for the week. He also planned to move home some of the stuff that she didn’t need any more; that way there would be less to carry once she graduated.

The door was flung open after Sandor knocked, and there stood a vision that could only be Elle's roommate Sansa; red hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun, glasses perched on the end of her nose, official looking papers under her arm and a full shot glass in her hand; she was adorable and

Sandor was captivated immediately. He waited for the look of horror once she saw his scars, but it never happened; instead he heard

“Hi, you must be Sandor, come on in, we’re celebrating.”

Sandor wandered into the apartment which looked as if a bomb had gone off inside, only to find his baby sister Elle setting up shots for a room full of young women.

“Sandor, you’re here I didn’t expect you so soon, here have a shot, we’re celebrating.”

Sandor accepted the drink, tipped it back with everyone else, and then asked

“what are we celebrating?”

Elle and Sansa immediately thrust official looking papers under his nose, it appeared that they had both received job offers as 'assistant to the assistant curator' with the Smithsonian.

Sandor was thrilled, not only did Elle get a job in her field, but they’d be living in the same town for the first time in years.

After one more shot, Elle and Sansa’s guests began gathering up their stuff to leave. It was their last night on campus before everyone left for spring break, and they weren’t going to waste it. There were bars to visit, drinks to be bought for them, bad decisions to be made.

As they filed out, Sandor noticed Sansa did not seem to be getting ready to leave, “aren’t you going too?”

“No, my brother Rob should be here in a few hours, so I don’t want to be too drunk when he gets here. Besides the ride to Winterfell is long enough without being hungover.”

“EEEEWWW Rob is coming?” squealed Elle.

Sansa rolled her eyes at Sandor, “yes, you know he is, how else am I supposed to get home?”

“I have to do something with my hair and makeup” shouted Elle over her shoulder as she bolted from the room, leaving Sandor and Sansa alone.

Sansa began to gather up the empty shot glasses and carry them to the kitchen, Sandor stood up and moved to help her.

“So you live in DC? Any suggestions where Elle and I should look for an apartment?”

If it was up to Sandor, he would’ve suggested the complex where he lived. Not only would Elle be close, but he’d get go see Sansa on a regular basis and get to know her better.

“What are you looking for?”

“Well I guess a safe area near the Metro, 2 bedrooms, but not outrageously expensive. Any chance there’s anything like that near you?”

Sandor grinned, oh yea he’d definitely help them find something near him.

**Present Day**

25 minutes later Sandor was standing in front of the Metro entrance waiting for Sansa. A few minutes later, he saw her walking down the street towards him carrying a box full of plants.

Sandor quickly walked to meet her, pressed a firm kiss on her lips and took the box from her.

“So these are your favorites?”

Sansa smirked “actually no, these were the ones I could carry.”

Fortunately for the couple most of the government employees had received their furlough notices several hours ago and had already left the city. The Metro was fairly empty and their train came a few minutes after they entered the station. They reached their stop and walked the few blocks to their townhouse carrying their bags, and the plants.

“Well what do you want to do?”

This wasn’t their first government shutdown, they hoped it wouldn’t be the longest. In 2014 they had just moved into the townhouse when the government shut down in October.

They spent the next 3 weeks emptying boxes, setting up the town house, painting walls, mulching the flower beds and “christening” every surface in the place.

In 2018 the shutdown didn’t happen until December. They both admitted that it was nice to have Christmas week off from work. Elle and Rob, who had moved to Philadelphia for Rob’s job, came and spent the holiday with them.

But after they left on New Year’s Day, Sandor and Sansa were at a loss as to what they should do with themselves. They were used to working 40 hours a week, sometimes more. Idleness didn’t sit well with either of them.

So they cleaned the townhouse from top to bottom, made almost daily trips to Goodwill (to donate clothes and other items they came across in their cleaning frenzy), and they shredded. Oh boy did they shred.

When Sansa had moved in with Sandor, right before Elle and Rob got married, all of her boxes were stacked on top of his in the storage unit.

When they moved, rather than going through the boxes, they just moved them into the townhouse.

While they had separated out whose box was whose (Sandor’s boxes went in the basement, Sansa’s to the attic) they hadn’t done anything with them.

After New Year’s they tackled the basement and Sandor’s boxes. While Sansa secretly found it adorable that Sandor had pay stubs from his first job as a bus boy the 90s, they still had to go.

So now they were facing another shut down and had to fill their time, or they would end up sitting in the pajamas all day, drinking wine, watching CSPAN on the television while swearing at Congress and the President.

“How about we tackle my boxes in the attic?”

“That sounds like a plan Little Bird.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From chapter two:
> 
> He leaned in and captured her lips with his in a firm kiss. Sansa broke away and murmured, “Oh thank God, finally” and launched back towards Sandor and his lips. “What do you mean?” “Jesus fuck, I’ve been in the friend-zone forever, I was wondering if I’d ever get out.” Sandor burst into laughter “what’s so funny?” “I thought the same thing”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note rating change and additional tags.

**After Graduation**

Sandor had helped Elle and Sansa find an apartment in his neighborhood, so the three of them saw each other a lot: on the Metro, in the supermarket, in the park, weekly dinners.

Sansa’s brother Rob, who had started dating Elle shortly after spring break, also lived in DC working in the private sector. Eventually the four of them spent most of their non-work hours together.

Sandor and Sansa weren’t dating, not that Sandor didn’t want to, he was desperately in love with Sansa, but had no idea how to get himself out of the friend-zone. Often when Rob and Elle were out on a date, they’d hang out. Dinner, a movie, drinking at local bars; it was like they were dating but without the actual good stuff: kissing, holding hands, other things.

One Saturday night, Sandor and Sansa were hanging out at her apartment watching television when Rob and Elle burst into the apartment.

“Look” Elle wiggled her ring finger under Sansa’s nose, there sat a square cut diamond in a platinum setting “we’re engaged”

Sansa leapt to her feet to hug her friend, then her brother, then her friend again “congratulations, I’m so happy for you”

“You’ll be my maid of honor, right?”

“of course”

Rob and Sandor stood and smiled as Sansa and Elle hugged, squealed, and cried; then began to discuss dates, venues, dresses, and colors. At that point Rob dragged Elle into her room for some more celebrating leaving Sansa and Sandor in the living room grinning at each other.

Sansa reached up and hugged Sandor “I guess that means we’ll be family now”

Sandor flinched, this was it. “I don’t think I want to be family”

Sansa leaned back from Sandor and looked up at him “what do you mean?”

“well family members shouldn’t do this” and he leaned in and captured her lips with his in a firm kiss.

Sansa broke away and murmured, “Oh thank God, finally” and launched back towards Sandor and his lips.

“What do you mean?”

“Jesus fuck, I’ve been in the friend-zone forever, I was wondering if I’d ever get out.”

Sandor burst into laughter

“what’s so funny?”

“I thought the same thing”

Once the friend-zone was firmly behind them Sandor and Sansa’s relationship progressed quickly. Sandor had thought about where he’d take Sansa on dates for months before he’d actually had the chance to do it. So now that they were officially a couple, he had lots of ideas.

In between Sansa being dragged wedding dress shopping with Elle, Sandor wined and dined her like his life depended on it (and in his mind his life did depend on Sansa falling in love and spending the rest of her life with him) The best part was they didn’t have to spend time getting to know each other, they were already good friends.

On weekends they went out to dinner, concerts, festivals; living in DC they had the advantage that there was always something going on. They still hung out during the week as they had before they were a couple, but now instead of sitting around the apartment watching movies there was kissing. Lots and lots of kissing.

Sandor loved nothing more than having Sansa on his lap straddling him, as he pressed hard open mouth kisses onto her mouth, neck, collarbone; anywhere he could reach. Sandor never pressed Sansa to do anything she wasn’t ready for, he would take it as slow as she wanted, he would wait forever if he needed to.

A few weeks into their relationship, Sandor brought Sansa home after attending a free concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Rob had taken Elle home to Winterfell to meet some of his friends from high school, so they had the entire apartment to themselves for the weekend. After kissing for what seemed like hours while Sansa ground down onto his lap, she whispered into his ear

“stay the night, please?”

“Are you sure?”

Sansa nodded and tightened her arms around his neck as Sandor stood up, then wrapped her legs around his waist as he walked them to her bedroom. After undressing each other they slid under the sheets continuing to kiss and caress, both growing more and more ready to take their relationship to the next level.

“if you decide you’re not ready, we can stop if you want Little Bird”

at that statement Sansa sat up, yanked open the drawer of her bedside table, pulled out a condom, ripped the wrapper open and rolled it down Sandor's erection. Noticing Sandor's shocked look, Sansa shrugged “I’ve been dreaming of this for a long time, I just wanted to be ready when the time was right”

As Sandor pushed into Sansa they both groaned, he set a slow pace, and they stared into each others eyes as he moved in and out of her. Sandor hoped his eyes said everything he wanted to tell Sansa, he moved to rest his forehead on Sansa's “Sansa, I ….”

Sansa silenced him with a long, scorching-hot, open mouth kiss “I know Sandor, me too”

Sandor grinned and flipped them so that Sansa was on top and rolled his hips to encourage Sansa to grind down on him. He increased his pace and used the fact that his arms and hands were now free to tweak Sansa's nipples before moving one hand down to massage her clit.

Sansa’s breathing began to change and Sandor felt her begin to flutter around his erection. Suddenly Sansa arched back hard and came with a loud groan. Sandor soon followed with a loud groan of his own. As he began to soften, Sandor pulled out, and after discarding the condom, got back into bed, pulled Sansa into his side, kissed her sweaty temple and whispered “I love you Little Bird.”

Sansa snuggled against Sandor, laid get head on his chest and drifted off to sleep.

**Present Day**

The plan to start the boxes in the attic was thwarted when Sansa received a phone call early the next morning.

The alarm in the exhibit case containing Dorothy’s ruby slippers was emitting a trouble alarm. Over the phone Sansa had instructed the security guard to read off a list of numbers from the monitor, and immediately decided she needed to go in and check for herself. Sandor did not even try to talk her out of it, remembering their argument after receiving a similar phone call during the last shutdown.

Since starting her position at the Smithsonian, Sansa had steadily move up the career ladder. From assistant to the assistant, to assistant curator, to now, an actual curator at the Smithsonian.

Sandor had to chuckle, in all the years he worked for the government he never received phone calls during a shutdown, Sansa got them all the time. While in 2014 she was still low enough on the totem pole that no one called her, by 2018 she was one of the go-to people if there was a problem.

About three days into the last shutdown, Sansa received a panicked phone call from one of the security guards. There was an alarm going off in the first ladies’ dress case that they’d never heard before. Sansa ran through the town house collecting her metro card and government ID preparing to go into the city.

“what are you doing? You can’t just go in there, you’re furloughed”

“Sandor I can’t just ignore the fact that there’s a problem, if something happened to the dresses I’d never forgive myself”

“if they thought it was so important to monitor the collections, they shouldn’t have made you a non-essential employee”

Sansa glared at Sandor as she continued to get ready to leave “I can’t let the fact that Congress and the President can’t get their shit together put those dresses in jeopardy” and slammed out the door.

Sansa arrived home eight hours later. After silencing the alarm and checking all the dresses, Sansa decided that as long as she was there she might as well check the rest of the exhibits in the gallery.

Sandor hadn’t accomplished anything while she was gone, except: sit on the couch, drink beer, watch CSPAN and swear at Congress as they continued to not get enough votes to pass a budget.

Sandor bashfully apologized to Sansa when she finally got home. He was proud of her commitment, but still kind of pissed off that even though she was technically furloughed she was still expected to go into the city whenever there was a problem.

After that, whenever Sansa got a call about one of the exhibit cases, he rolled his eyes as she left, but kept his mouth shut.

While she was in the city today, Sandor decided to tackle his office, and start a shredding pile. As much as he tried to go paperless, after an hour Sandor had a full trash bag of paper to shred.

As he sat at his desk he pulled the small jewelry box out of the back of the bottom drawer. He had purchased the engagement ring for Sansa when they’d been up in Philadelphia during the summer visiting Rob and Elle. He had wanted to make sure he got the perfect ring, and who better than his sister, Sansa’s best friend, to help him find the right one.

They had a great time when they were up visiting; they saw the Liberty Bell, went to a Phillies game, ran up the steps at the Art Museum pretending they were Rocky and visited the museum where Elle worked as the curator.

When they left DC for Philadelphia to follow Rob’s career, Elle had resigned her position with the Smithsonian, and eventually found a job with a small privately run museum outside of the city. The Mercer Museum housed the private collection of Archeologist, Author, tile maker, and collector (well today it might be called hoarder) Henry Mercer. The curator in Sansa was horrified at the museum’s set-up. But once Elle explained that the museum was set up exactly the same way Mercer had done in the early 1900s, Sansa relented and started to enjoy herself. The visitor started on the top floor and wound their way down to the first floor, all the while trying to comprehend why Mercer collected all of this stuff. Sandor’s favorite was the hallway full of 18th and 19th century tavern signs, some of the names were hilarious. The couple even purchased some Mercer tiles in the museum shop for the townhouse.

They also managed to squeeze in a “sibling day.” Rob and Sansa planned to go into Bucks County; Sansa had a map of where all the covered bridges were located, while Rob had a list of where all the local breweries were. Sandor was confident they’d be gone for hours.

As Sandor and Elle started into the city, Sandor informed his sister, that they weren’t going to the Italian Market to buy prosciutto, instead they were going to Jeweler’s Row to find an engagement ring for Sansa.

Elle squealed “oh my God, it’s about fucking time! Do you have any idea what you want to get?”

Sandor mumbled something about a blue stone to match Sansa's eyes, when Elle exploded

“for fuck sakes Sandor they’re called sapphires”

“well that’s why you’re here, I don’t know what I’m doing”

“don’t worry bro, I’ll hook you up.”

Elle marched into one of the shops along the row, Sandor trailing behind her. “We want to see engagement rings with diamonds and sapphires” when asked what kind of metal, after looking at Sandor and getting a blank look, Elle rolled her eyes “bring us a variety, we’ll know the right one when we see it.”

Four stores later Sandor was beginning to give up hope of finding something, they’d seen it all: pear shaped, cushion, gold, platinum his head was spinning.

Finally, an older gentleman in the fifth store said to him “I do have an antique ring in the back you might like” he brought out a gold ring with a center round diamond surrounded by sapphires, it looked like a flower. Sandor knew this was the one, and one look at the expression on Elle’s face confirmed that fact.

“It’s perfect, I’ll take it.”

Sandor snapped the ring box closed. He had sworn Elle to secrecy, making her promise to not even tell Rob, but he was concerned about how much longer Elle would be able to keep her mouth shut. Sandor wanted to propose, god knows he did, but he just hadn’t found the right moment yet.

The shutdown (and the weeks leading up to it) had put a damper on all his plans. Sansa would not even think about planning a wedding if they were on furlough. All Sandor wanted was for Sansa to be able to gleefully dive head first into planning the next chapter in their lives, he wondered what type of wedding she would want; a big formal event at Winterfell, something here in DC, or maybe a destination wedding like Rob and Elle had. Sandor would roll with whatever Sansa decided, as long as by the end of the day they were married; but he knew she wouldn’t even buy a bridal magazine until they had incomes coming in again.

Sandor tossed the box back into the drawer, once again cursing Congress and the President for screwing with his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you ever visit Philadelphia and have the time to get out of the city, I highly recommend visiting the Mercer Museum. It is kooky fun and I think, a curator biggest nightmare. Scratch that, if you visit Philadelphia, call me and I’ll go with you. I want to see your face when you get your first look at the place.
> 
> Next up Rob and Elle’s wedding.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Preview for chapter 3
> 
> Sandor stared at Sansa bemused as she pushed him to sit down at the kitchen table, then straddled his lap and started to kiss and nuzzle his neck. “what’s gotten into you?” “well if Congress and the President are going to make us stay home, we might as well make the most of it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ratings change (again). I think I was teetering on the back edge of mature and more towards explicit; so better safe than...
> 
> Of all the shore towns in New Jersey, Cape May is probably the most charming. Lots of adorable Victorian B&Bs and not the typical “jersey shore” crowd, its much more family oriented. It’s a great town for a destination wedding.

**Rob and Elle's Wedding**

Rob and Elle decided to get married in Cape May, NJ. They reasoned that it was a good central location. Between where they were living in Philadelphia, Sandor and Sansa in DC, the Starks at Winterfell in New York State, Elle and Sandor’s Uncle Ray in Vermont, and their friends scattered up and down the east coast it seemed to make the most sense.

Both Sandor and Sansa suspected that they didn’t want a big formal to do and so opted for a more casual “destination” wedding. The ceremony and reception was to take place at a large Bed and Breakfast just a couple of blocks from the ocean. Most of the family (including Sandor and Sansa) stayed at other B&Bs right on the same street.

While they weren’t really beach people, Sandor and Sansa decided to make a long weekend of it, leaving DC Thursday night after work. They arrived late in the evening and checked into the very cute B&B with an even cuter room that featured a huge four poster bed. While they both knew that it was important to get a good night’s sleep (since it would probably be the last one they got the entire weekend), they were unprepared for the lure of “vacation sex.”

As he kissed down her body and she groaned, Sansa managed to blurt out “Sandor we have to be quiet, I can guarantee this bed will squeak if we move too much, and I’m sure the walls are paper thin.”

“Well Little Bird, you’re just going to have to sit still and stuff something in your mouth, because I have plans for you”

Sandor continued to kiss and lick down her body until his mouth was even with her navel, his swirled his tongue in it then moved down to her mound, licking a stripe from vagina to clit. Sansa arched off the bed and slapped her hand across her mouth, but then resorting to smashing a pillow against her face. Sansa was sure she could feel Sandor smiling as he continued to lick and suck her clit.

They’d been together long enough that he knew exactly what she liked, and he was an expert on how to make her come slow and drawn out or hard and fast; it seemed like hard and fast was his goal tonight. As she frantically rubbed against his mouth, Sandor upped the stakes by slipping one, two and eventually three fingers in her; and just when she thought she couldn’t enjoy this anymore than she was, Sandor rotated his fingers to rub the rough patch right behind her clit and Sansa exploded.

Sansa wasn’t sure how much, if any, sound the pillow had absorbed, she was just thankful that her parents weren’t checking in until tomorrow.

She was sure her shout of “Jesus fuck Sandor” was heard throughout the entire establishment (if not the whole town).

After pushing Sandor away (honestly she couldn’t take any more stimulation) she lay there for what seemed like hours trying to get her limbs to move again. Sandor moved back up to the head of the bed, laid back with his arms crossed behind his head on the pillow, a very smug and satisfied look on his face, and puffed out a low dirty chuckle that always sent goosebumps down her spine.

“That was nice”

“Fuck you Sandor I can never show my face here again”

Sandor barked out a laugh “it was worth it”

At that Sansa swung up on top of him and slid down on his hard as fuck cock and started to ride him as fast, hard and as deep as she could. She wasn’t going to be the only one embarrassed at breakfast tomorrow.

As she suspected, the bed squeaked loudly in protest, but neither one of them were inclined to stop. Sansa slapped Sandor’s hands away as he tried to bring her to orgasm again with his fingers then reached behind her back to fondle his balls. Sandor grunted loudly, sat up and took a nipple in his mouth, but that wasn’t going to be enough to keep him quiet. Sansa could feel the sweat pouring down the back of her neck as she continued to buck against him until eventually Sandor growled her name very loudly, tensed and she felt the warmth of his seed shoot into her; yea, they were definitely going to need to find a diner tomorrow morning because there was no way they could show their faces in the breakfast room!

After collapsing in a pile of sweaty, naked, arms and legs and sleeping like the dead for the next several hours; Sandor and Sansa were up showered and dressed early the next morning.

Friday afternoon was the start of all the wedding hoopla, and they wanted to see a little bit of the town before they were pulled apart to do other things by family and wedding party responsibilities.

After stuffing their faces at Uncle Bill’s Pancake House (that much amazing sex really, really built up an appetite) they walked along the boardwalk, collected shells, looked at the Victorian houses, they even went and saw the concrete ship shipwreck, eventually arriving back at the B&B several hours later.

The next 24 hours were a blur of family and friend arrivals, lunch, wedding rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, bar hopping (by the men), spa treatments (by the women) until everyone was gathered in the atrium of the B&B waiting for the bride and her uncle to appear.

Uncle Ray was Sandor and Elle's only living relative. After their parents and older brother had died in a quickly moving house fire when they were both kids (that left Sandor with his facial scars) they had gone to live with their mother’s elder brother. Uncle Ray had done his best; having been a life long bachelor suddenly responsible for two young children had been no easy feat. There had been a lot of missteps, but both Sandor and Elle were eternally grateful that he had taken them in so they hadn’t ended up separated and in foster care.

When the time came to decide who should walk her down the aisle, Elle had wanted Sandor, but Sandor argued that Uncle Ray had earned the honor. Sandor would always know how Elle felt about him, but it was important for them to show the other wedding guests what Uncle Ray meant to them, and what better way than this?

The ceremony was romantic and emotional (there wasn’t a dry eye in the house when Elle and Sandor lit three candles to represent the members of their family that were only there in spirit), but the reception and the “after-reception” were raucous.

Uncle Ray and Ned Stark had insisted on jointly paying for the reception (and the after-reception) so there was enough food and drink (and alcohol) for twice the amount of people that were there.

Everyone enjoyed themselves so much, that the wedding breakfast the next morning was a very somber affair; most of the invitees wearing sunglasses to hide their bloodshot eyes, and opting for coffee and dry toast instead of mimosas and full breakfasts.

After seeing Rob and Elle off to their honeymoon and kissing and hugging everyone goodbye, Sandor and Sansa started back for DC late Monday afternoon. They were exhausted, a bit hung over, and ready to sleep in their own bed (where they could make as much noise as they wanted to).

“I could sleep for a week, but that was so much fun” Sandor agreed. If this weekend proved nothing else, it confirmed how well both families got along, and it made Sandor think that maybe there should be another wedding that they could all go to soon.

**Present Day**

Sandor closed all the drawers to the desk, straightened up the items on the desktop, and gathered the bag up to take it to the garage where they kept the shredder. He heard the front door slam and Sansa call out

“I’m home, where are you?”

he met her in the kitchen where she was dumping her bag and coat

“how are Dorothy’s shoes?”

“they’re fine, just a faulty sensor, I also checked on the first lady’s dresses.”

“of course you did, Mamie Eisenhower’s dress still ugly as fuck?”

Sansa lightly slapped Sandor on the chest “Sandor don’t be mean, just because a red ball gown with matching purse isn’t something you or I would choose, doesn’t mean it wasn’t pretty back in the day, besides its not ugly, just too young for her”

Sandor just rolled his eyes, he'd heard this argument before. Even Sansa couldn’t have pulled off that monstrosity of a dress. “whatever, want to have some lunch then tackle your boxes in the attic?”

“well, I am hungry but not for lunch.”

Sandor stared at Sansa bemused as she pushed him to sit down at the kitchen table, then straddled his lap and started to kiss and nuzzle his neck.

“what’s gotten into you?”

“well if Congress and the President are going to make us stay home, we might as well make the most of it.”

Sansa continued to kiss Sandor’s neck, sucking his earlobe into her mouth and whispering into his ear “I’ve been thinking about doing this all morning” Sansa pulled the hem of his t-shirt out of the waistband of his jeans, pulling it up and over his head, running her hands through the hair on his chest.

Sansa slid off his lap down onto her knees on the floor and immediately unbuttoned the button on his jeans and slowly pulled the zipper down. Sandor was hard as a rock, and could already feel his cock leaking before she’d even touched it. Sansa pulled his cock out of his boxer briefs and gave it two hard tugs before running her tongue around the tip.

Sandor had to restrain himself from arching right off the chair, and groaned loudly. Sansa continued to work up and down his cock with her mouth; licking, sucking, nibbling as Sandor squirmed on the chair.

Suddenly, Sansa looked up at him, eyes wide, wrapped her lips around the head and sucked hard, ignoring Sandor’s protests to stop or he was going to 'blow his load in her mouth.' She continued for several minutes until Sandor growled “I’m coming” and shot his seed into Sansa’s mouth.

Her eyes never left his as she swallowed everything down, and as soon as she was done, Sandor pulled her off the floor and back onto his lap. He kissed her hard pushing his tongue into her, tasting himself in her mouth.

Needless to say they never made it to the attic that day; immediately retiring to the bedroom once Sandor could stand again. Hours later as Sandor stroked through Sansas's hair as she lay asleep in the crook of his shoulder, he puffed out an exasperated sigh; Christ he loved her, why couldn’t Congress pass a fucking budget, was that too much to ask?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I agree with Sansa, Mamie’s dress isn’t ugly, it’s typical of the time, but sadly much too young for her. Someone should have had the courage to tell her that women a certain age do not look good in debutant gowns. And the color didn’t do her any favors either.
> 
> Next up, a budget finally gets passed.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a long day of going through her past, contemplating everything that brought her to this point; her upbringing, her education, the good and bad choices she’d made in everything including boys and men, this was a perfect way to end the day. Making love to Sandor, the man that Sansa was sure was her future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thankfully another continuing resolution was signed last week so I could finish this without having to consider what was going on in real life (although getting an actual budget would have been better)
> 
> I was horrified to discover that Kermit the frog is not currently on exhibit at the Smithsonian, but in my opinion he should be (so he is included in this chapter).
> 
> Thank you to everyone that read, commented and made suggestions.

**Sansa's Boxes**

When Sansa had moved in with Sandor she only brought about 10 storage boxes with her, however that number had grown over the years. Every time they went to Winterfell, or her parents or one of her siblings visited them in DC, it seemed as though another box made it into the attic.

Of course Ned and Cat kept things such as her school pictures and other more traditional mementos of her childhood, but since she was now an adult with a house and a mortgage of her own it seemed as if they had decided that they were no longer the sole repository of her life.

When Sandor and Sansa decided they were going to finally go through her boxes, Sansa was nervous about what might be in there. Boxes marked college, or summer camp could hold just about anything; she and Sandor were comfortable talking about everything, but was she really ready to hear what he had to say about her unfortunate choice of junior prom gown and hairdo (let alone date)?

They started bright and early the next morning, with coffee and trash bags, the goal was to reclaim a little bit back of the attic space, and get rid of some of the stuff that Sansa was not really tied to anymore.

Some of it was easy; there was really no reason to save an entire box of dried prom and winter formal corsages, and if Sansa was honest, she didn’t remember the names of all the boys that had given her the flowers; other things though had much more sentimental value.

They spent the entire day methodically going through each box; reminiscing about different objects that they came across. Sandor truly enjoyed hearing more about Sansa’s childhood it was so different than his, the girl scout box alone revealed a endearing collection of memories.

Sandor chuckled at Sansa’s stories about weekly meetings, attending camp, and the competitions to sell the most cookies or earn the most badges; her impressive sash full of badges was set aside to be kept; but, her sit-upon,

“what the fuck is a sit-upon?” Sandor incredulously asked.

“It’s obviously something you sit on when you sit around a campfire so your ass doesn’t get cold or wet” immediately went into the trash.

They came across a hilarious photo of an obviously drunk Sansa and Elle dressed as bananas from Halloween of their junior year. Sandor howled with laughter trying to imagine Sansa, Elle and eight of their friends dressed as bananas with their very tall friend Brienne dressed as a gorilla parading through their small college town, bar hopping. Sansa solemnly commented that she hasn’t been able to drink a banana daiquiri ever since that night.

Sandor immediately decided he wanted a framed copy of the picture for his office, and snapped a photo of it with his smart phone and set it as his screen lock.

By the end of the day they were down to five boxes to keep, ten bags of paper to be recycled (including old newspapers that Sansa wasn’t even sure why she kept, and lots and lots of high school and college essays), another ten bags of just regular trash and one box of books to donate.

The most mystifying item they discovered was an entire shoebox full of unmarked floppy discs that Sansa didn’t even recognize. Once they brought all the trash down to the garage, Sandor booted up an ancient desktop computer in his office, popped in one of the discs, and discovered that it contained Elle’s college senior thesis.

A quick text to Elle confirmed that the box was hers, and after her snarky comment of “oh thank god, I was worried that I’d lost my essay on the Turkish crisis of 1946 forever” she asked that they just put the box aside until she saw them again.

They ended a very productive day sitting in front of the television, eating homemade flatbread pizzas with oversized glasses of wine (which they felt they definitely deserved) watching the news to see if Congress had been as productive as they had been. They had not. With a sigh Sandor used the remote to turn off the TV.

“Come here Little Bird, use me as a sit-upon”

Sansa smirked as she clamored onto Sandor’s lap “if you liked my sit-upon, maybe I should show you my knot tying skills, I have a badge for that too.”

Sandor laughed, kissed her soundly, stood, lifting Sansa up with his hands braced under her ass. Sansa wrapped her legs around his waist as they made their way to the bedroom, removing her t-shirt and bra as they progressed down the hallway.

“Sorry, I don’t have the patience to wait for you to find ropes” Sandor quipped as he dumped Sansa onto the bed and she immediately pulled her jeans down her legs.

Sandor quickly shucked his own pants and without ceremony buried his cock in Sansa. She arched into Sandor, dragging his shirt over his head, and latching her mouth onto his collarbone as he mercilessly plunged in and out of her.

After a long day of going through her past, contemplating everything that brought her to this point; her upbringing, her education, the good and bad choices she’d made in everything including boys and men, this was a perfect way to end the day. Making love to Sandor, the man that Sansa was sure was her future.

With a roar Sandor came hard, triggering Sansa’s own orgasm, her walls clamping down on his cock and she inadvertently bit his collarbone. Sandor yelped in surprise and a little bit of pain.

“oh my god Sandor, I’m sorry, I got a little carried away.”

“no problem, Little Bird, if I could, I’d give you a badge for that performance”

Sansa threw back her head and laughed “how do you know I don’t already have one, you didn’t look that closely at my sash”

Sandor smirked “you got me there”

**Week 2 and Beyond**

The next several days became a blur of cleaning, trips to goodwill and the local library to donate clothes and books, shredding (always shedding) and trying to maintain a regular schedule.

As the days slipped into weeks however, it became harder and harder to keep to their normal routines. They ended up sleeping and staying up later and later; it wasn’t unusual for them to binge watch entire seasons of shows they would not normally have time for. They joked that they were finally getting all their money’s worth out of their Netflix account, and maybe more.

Season one of Outlander had turned them both on so much that they had ripped their clothes off right there on the couch and licked and sucked each other to completion in record time.

Fortunately they were able to restrain themselves while watching the first two seasons of the Crown (although Sansa wondered if the real Prince Phillip was as naughty, sexy as he was portrayed on the show)

Sandor and Sansa knew that they were fortunate; after the last shutdown, they realized that they needed to keep at least three mortgage payments plus expenses in their savings account in case there was another long one. They scrimped and saved for the next year to put as much money in the bank as they could, so that they would be okay with no income coming in for a while.

They’d already seen on television that local food banks were being set up for federal employees, and they knew that some of their newer, younger coworkers lived paycheck to paycheck and were already suffering due to their lack of income. But since it was just the two of them, they hoped that as long as they were frugal and nothing went wrong with the townhouse, they would be able to ride this out until they went back to work.

Something they had realized over the years was that the public usually didn’t understand the ramifications of a shutdown to federal employees. There was a misguided belief that this was just a vacation for them. But panicking about being able to pay bills, and being bad-mouthed by Congress definitely didn’t feel like a vacation.

Both Sandor and Sansa knew that it was fortunate that over the years back payment of their salaries had been authorized after the shutdowns were over; but it was never guaranteed, came in months after they were back to work, and the bills still came during the shutdown, and food still needed to be put on the tables.

Sansa still got calls every few days from the security guards. Sometimes it was a false alarm, but more often than not she ended up going into the city to check on the exhibits.

Sandor and Sansa also joined thousand of other federal employees at least once a week as they rallied on the National Mall urging Congress and the President to end the shutdown. But mostly they stuck close to the house, spending more time together than they had in a long time.

**Today**

Sandor sat in his office waiting for Sansa to get back home, scrolling through his tablet looking at roundtrip flights and hotels in Iceland. Over the past few evenings they had watched the Icelandic mini-series “The Lava Field” set in and around Reykjavik.

The scenes (other than the gruesome dead body) looked beautiful, and they mused about going there someday. Sandor wondered if that would be a good honeymoon location, or would Sansa want to go somewhere more traditional, like the Caribbean or Bermuda.

Of course, none of that mattered until a fucking budget got passed and he got the chance to propose and they planned a wedding. He puffed out an exasperated breath at the incompetence of the President and Congress and idly wondered where Sansa was; she’d texted him about 45 minutes ago to let him know she was on her way back to the townhouse.

Their plans for the day had been interrupted by a mid-morning texted photo from one of the security guards at the museum.

As they had emptied out the attic and other locations in the townhouse, they had compiled an alarmingly large pile of out of date electronic equipment. Old computers and laptops, cell phones, pagers, the old television they used before they purchased the flat screen; all of which needed to be disposed of appropriately.

But before that happened, some of the items needed to be wiped clean of data. They had spent a very agreeable afternoon on the back patio a couple of days ago, pulling out hard drives and smashing them with a hammer (possibly imagining Congress and the President, although neither one admitted that), and pulling out and cutting up the Sims cards in the cellphones. Sandor had found a location a couple of towns over for electronic recycling, and they had loaded everything into the car and had planned to go there today, when Sansa received the text.

There were no words, just an image of the Kermit the Frog exhibit case with Kermit lying on his side (instead of sitting on the plinth). Sansa didn’t even bother to call to find out what had happened, she just grabbed her coat and bag and rushed out of the townhouse calling over her shoulder to Sandor that she’d be back as soon as she could.

Sandor was beginning to think there was some sort of “Night at the Museum” thing going on at the Smithsonian. The amount of alarms Sansa had dealt with over the past few weeks was disturbing enough; and now this?

Sandor couldn’t think of any logical explanation for why Kermit would have fallen off his plinth; maybe he and the other exhibit objects were having a dance party last night and he was too drunk to get back where he belonged.

Sandor shook his head and laughed as he imagined Kermit and the huge marble statue of George Washington dressed in a toga throwing back a few while the museum was closed. That was as plausible an explanation as anything else he could think of; and that sounded like a party Sandor would enjoy. Maybe Sansa would know what really happened when she got home.

Suddenly a text alert came in on his phone; Congress had approved a budget, sent it on to the President and he had signed it immediately. The government would reopen tomorrow!

Sandor stood up and completely forgetting about drunken Kermit and George and their dance party; oh thank god, they could finally get on with their lives.

As he stood there smiling stupidly and looking at his phone he heard the door bang open and Sansa call out to him.

“Did you hear? They passed a budget”

Sandor made a snap decision and grabbed the ring box out of his desk and made his way down to meet Sansa on the first floor. She was in the kitchen talking a mile a minute

“can you believe it, we’re finally going back to work, thank god. I’ve been watering my plants every time I go in, but some of them look like they’re on their last legs”

Sansa dumped her coat on the chair and turned and stuck her head in the refrigerator

“Hopefully we still have time to get to the recycling center before it closes. I’m starving, I’m going to make a sandwich do you want one?”

When Sandor didn’t reply to any of her comments, Sansa whirled around to look at him and see if there was something wrong. What she saw was Sandor kneeling on the floor in front of her, arm outstretched, with an open ring box in his hand;

“Sansa, Little Bird, I have something I want to ask you”

He never got the chance because Sansa immediately barreled into him almost knocking him over laughing and crying at the same time. She crouched down and threw her arms around his neck and answered his non-asked question:

“yes, yes, yes.”


End file.
